1000 Words
by AmayaSora
Summary: Teddy is writing an essay on werewolves, and Sirius unexpectedly decides to help him. "Not one of the hundreds of pages devoted to werewolves contains anything remotely of value."


**This is weird AU where Sirius survives, yet Remus and Tonks still get together before dying in the final battle...so, it's one-sided SiriusXRemus (and here I'd like to thank **HP17RJO **for a helpful reply to my review reply that convinced me I needed to put that in the A/N. I'm grateful) **

**Anyway, I know it's bizarre, even for my mind, but I really enjoyed the premise of this fic and just went with it.**

**DISCLAIMER: _I do not own Sirius, Teddy, Harry, Remus, or any other wonderful characters or settings from the amazing HP universe. I get no money from this, only enjoyment._**

_**-AmayaSora**_

1000 Words

Teddy Lupin groaned. His brow was furrowed, lips pulled down in a frown, and his forehead rested heavily on his hand. The other one dropped its quill to ruffle his hair (which was mousy brown today) in a frustrated way.

His godfather, Harry Potter, looked up from the other end of the table, where he was poring over some case files, bright folders spread over the wooden surface creating a cheery picture quite at odds with Teddy's mood. "Something wrong, Teddy?"

"No," he said, with a sigh. "This essay just isn't going well."

"This is your Defense Against the Dark Arts essay?" Harry recalled the thirteen-year-old complaining at length about the amount of work he'd been assigned over break. "Want me to help?"

"Nah, that's okay. It's not really your area of expertise, anyway. We don't get to cover any real useful spells until next year." Teddy gave himself a minute to pout before continuing. "You'd think I of all people would be able to knock this one out, no problem."

"What's the topic?" inquired Harry. He was fairly sure he knew, but he figured it would be polite to ask.

"Werewolves," Teddy said, flashing a grin. It quickly dimmed, though, and he huffed and grabbed Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them.

"That book's rubbish; don't read that," a hoarse voice cut in suddenly. Teddy looked up to find Sirius Black hovering in the doorway to the kitchen. Teddy had always felt a bit uneasy around this man; the Azkaban thing didn't bother him one bit, but the man was always brooding and morose, and practically the only sound Teddy heard from him were frequent sighs. Harry had tried to impress upon the young boy that Sirius had lost everything that had ever been important to him, which would affect anybody. Yet even knowing that, and the fact that this man had been his father's best friend, his mother's cousin, and Harry's godfather, Teddy couldn't get over Sirius' demeanor.

"Erm..." Teddy said awkwardly. "Thank you."

Sirius stepped into the room, and the bags under his eyes were startling. Harry smiled in greeting, but Sirius didn't seem to notice. Harry was clearly worried (as he always was whenever Sirius was around), but refrained from comment and returned his attention to Teddy. "I'm sure there's plenty of books in the library here if you-"

"Those are even worse," Sirius interrupted. He would know, Teddy thought; Grimmauld Place was Sirius' ancestral home even if he had basically given Harry complete control over the place.

"Right," Teddy said, shifting a little in his seat. "So, um, are there any books you'd recommend?"

"No," said Sirius harshly, and Teddy was taken aback. He didn't understand why the older man had brought up the topic if he didn't have useful suggestions.

But Sirius finally decided to elaborate. "Books are useless. Even that autobiography one is a load of bull. Not one of the hundreds of pages devoted to werewolves contains anything remotely of value."

This was the longest speech Black had ever made in Teddy's presence. He wasn't quite sure how to respond. Tentatively, he ventured, "Well, how do you reckon I should do this essay?"

Sirius didn't seem to have heard him. He barked, "Did you know that werewolves' body temperatures are on average four degrees cooler than human body temperature, which makes hypothermia a real danger when they transform back to human? Especially in the first few hours they need constant heat, to raise their core temperature. No, you didn't know, because books won't tell you."

Teddy jotted down the information gratefully; even if he was still disconcerted by Sirius' behavior, it was relevant research.

"Nearly every transformation, ninety-nine percent of them, a knee gets dislocated. Have you ever dislocated a knee? That's one of the most painful joints to damage, and due to the bone structure of wolves versus people, it nearly always happens."

Harry winced, having had his fair share of knee injuries. But he still kept his eyes trained on Teddy, gauging the boy's reaction. So far it seemed pretty good, neutral enough.

"The werewolf can bark, too, not just growl. That's another difference from a true wolf, but books won't mention that as one of the main five," Sirius continued, and at some point during his talk he had slid into a chair.

"Why is that?" Teddy asked, legitimately curious.

"How should I know?" Sirius snapped. After a short pause, he went on. "For some reason, the pads of a werewolf's feet are ridiculously soft, and they are always bleeding. It's been known to take three whole days of murtlap essence for the human palms to be one hundred percent healed. Doesn't make much sense, soft foot pads..." he scoffed.

Maybe that's part of the reason they act so aggressively; they're in pain! thought Teddy excitedly. That would surely go over well in the essay.

"Do you know the first thing a werewolf does right after it transforms? It gives a big stretch, like a cat. Front paws extended, back arched gracefully, fur on its back ruffled. And then it howls, and although a bit creepy, there's something oddly beautiful about the sound.

"Werewolves like to climb trees. The longer-than-average claws give them a good grip, obviously, and they just scale up the trunk, but never higher than the third or fourth branch. I've always been convinced he thought he would fall. Then there was the one time he went swimming, and stopped short right before the drop off, even though he was the wolf at the time and a much stronger swimmer in that form than human. He swam back, sheepish expression visible even through the wolfish features.

"And he ate chocolate that one Valentine's Day- someone had left a box of those fancy Honeydukes ones lying on the path, and he devoured those so fast. And it got all over his face, little smears of chocolate, just asking to be licked off... Then he got that thorn in his ear, and ran around in circles trying to reach it, tail lashing madly. I thought I'd die laughing.

"In the snow, he'd be sleepy -because of the low body temperature thing- and those were easier days; one time he even decided to rest in a cave for half the night, because it was bitterly cold, even worse than usual, and we all crammed ourselves in there and watched the stars, and Moony put his head on mine for a good half hour."

Teddy was gazing at Sirius with rapt attention, quill completely abandoned as he drank in these stories of his father's youth. Sirius leaned forward into the light (he'd been shying away from it for years now), and the lines on his face seemed lighter, the angles of his thin face softer. And his eyes, finally there was in his eyes that light Harry had missed for so long, that spark of life. Harry beamed behind the blue folder he was holding.

"His eyes kept that color, that sapphire blue," Sirius said, nodding in the general direction of the folder. "It stood out against his fur, too; the fur never greyed like his hair did. Something to do with different follicle structure or something; he explained it to me once but I was only half paying attention. Surprisingly soft, too, but not so surprising if you knew him. No matter what those dumb books tell you, don't ever believe nothing of the human was left. It's there, if you care enough to look.

"The wolf was allergic to poppies; he buried his nose in one once and came up sneezing. Werewolf sneezes are infinitely amusing; I seriously considered planting some, with invisibility spells, in the Shack, just to hear the sneezes. Such a helpless sound, like a little pup..."

"I'll bet that would've been very funny!" said Teddy, and Sirius made an odd jerky movement, snapping out of his reverie abruptly, only to be faced full-force with the emotions they brought on.

"Yeah. Well, that's the kind of stuff they should have in books." He stood up suddenly, and without another word made his way to the door. He stopped, just at the threshold, and turned around, slowly. There was a smile on his face, a small, tentative one, but a smile nonetheless, born of reminisces. "You have Remus' eyes," Sirius murmured softly, and then disappeared into the darkened hallway.

"And his heart," Harry added, recognizing Teddy's expression as one conveying admiration, gratitude and finally, a new understanding of exactly what Remus had meant to Sirius, and why he was so devastated by the loss.

Teddy beamed, and quickly looked down to hide his tear-filled eyes, eyes that he would keep blue as much as he could.

The parchment was blank, but suddenly Teddy was supremely unconcerned. The essay called for 1000 words, but he would use none of Sirius'. Instead, he grabbed a small, worn journal, picked up his quill and began to sketch.

**D'aw. The ending was not planned in advance, but I really liked the idea of him with a sketchpad. Plus it relates to the title. **

**So. What did you think? Did you like it, did I convey character traits well, did you spot any errors? Let me know!**


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